A report written by academic staff at WISERD Swansea, entitled ‘An analysis of subjective wellbeing in Wales: Evidence from the Annual Population Survey’, was published by the Welsh Government on 31st October 2012. This report examines Annual Population Survey (APS) data containing new questions on Subjective Wellbeing (SWB). It focuses on comparisons between variations in SWB across…

The number of people in Wales claiming help from councils for homelessness has gone up for the second year running. Figures show more than 19,000 people said they had nowhere to live, a rise of about 27% on the previous year. However, Cardiff University lecturer Dr Peter Mackie, who is also the chair of the WISERD…

WISERD has secured a £1M investment into the development of education research in Wales with the establishment of WISERD EDUCATION. This Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) funded project has the potential to change the landscape of education research in Wales and will put Wales at the forefront of research capacity building developments in…

WISERD and the Institute of Welsh Politics are jointly hosting a seminar series on the subject of ‘Knowing Wales’. Led by prominent figures from across the social scientists and delivered at Aberystwyth University over the next 12 months, sessions focus on the shifting social, economic and political landscape of Wales in the 21st century, with…

Professor David Blackaby, of WISERD Swansea and Swansea University, has been interviewed by the South Wales Evening Post about  job cuts by Tata. The steel company announced last Friday (23rdNovember) that 500 mainly white collar jobs would be lost at the steel plant in Port Talbot. In the interview Professor Blackaby stated that, although jobs…

Professor Gareth Rees, Director of the Wales Institute of Social Economic Research Data and Methods (WISERD), has recently commented in the Western Mail on this year’s GCSE exam figures. The figures, released last week, show that 70.8% of Welsh pupils achieved the Level 2 threshold overall this summer, up from 67.3% last year. The proportion of…

The Call for Papers for the fourth annual WISERD conference is now open. The WISERD 2013 Conference will take place on 25th and 26th June at the University of Glamorgan, attracting colleagues from academic, policy, public, private and third sectors. Following on from three successful events in Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor; the WISERD conference has become…

WISERD has successfully secured a £1m investment into the development of education research in Wales with the establishment of WISERDEDUCATION. The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) funded programme has the potential to change the landscape of education research in Wales and will put Wales at the forefront of research capacity building developments in…

Dr Robin Mann is interviewed for the BBC about his research on Public Sentiments towards immigration in Wales.  

A report for the Welsh Government carried out by WISERD researchers has revealed that a larger proportion of people in Wales hold negative views on immigration compared with other parts of the UK. The final report for the Welsh Government New Ideas Social Research Fund project entitled ‘Public Sentiments Towards Immigrants and Minorities: The Difference…

A report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation carried out by WISERD researchers and members of the WISERD housing thematic network in the School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University has revealed that increasing numbers of young people are going to be forced into the private rented sector over the coming decade if they want…

Professor Gareth Rees is interviewed about the Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification on BBC Radio Wales.

Launch of Audio Walks resources in Grangetown is announced in Western Mail

The resources from an innovative project which used audio walks to create a sense of community in one of Cardiff’s inner-city neighbourhoods, are being launched at an event next week. The ‘Sounding the Way: Audio Walking in Cardiff’s Urban Neighbourhoods’ project was funded in 2010 by the Beacon for Wales and led by Dr Kate…

Cardiff School of Social Sciences has officially launched the European Commission funded NESET website – NESETweb – a Europe-wide online resource aimed at supporting the development of better and fairer education across the European Union. NESET, which stands for the Network of Experts on Social aspects of Education and Training, has launched the website to…

The resources from an innovative project which used audio walks to create a sense of community in one of Cardiff’s inner-city neighbourhoods, are being launched at an event next week. The ‘Sounding the Way: Audio Walking in Cardiff’s Urban Neighbourhoods’ project was funded in 2010 by the Beacon for Wales and led by Dr Kate Moles…

WISERD recently co-organised a special symposium on Qualitative GIS at the 2012 annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) in New York.  The AAG conference is one of the largest in the world, attracting an average 7000-8000 international participants. The symposium was organised by Stephen Burgess (WISERD, Cardiff); Mei-Po Kwan (Ohio State University);…

Bangor Social Sciences Conference on Intersectionality and Belonging (28-29 June) On Thursday 28th and Friday 29th June, Bangor University will be hosting an international conference exploring the themes of intersectionality and belonging. The conference is a collaborative venture between the School of Social Sciences Bangor University, the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data and Methods…

In February this year, WISERD’s Housing Reference Group teamed up with the Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning’s Innovation and Engagement Unit and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) to host a public lecture on the future of homelessness policy in Wales. The lecture entitled ‘The Future of Homelessness Policy in Wales: Learning Lessons from the States and the Scots’,…

One of the most important events in the social science calendar for people concerned with social and economic issues in Wales is travelling to Bangor next week. The third annual Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods’ (WISERD) Conference will bring together social science researchers, politicians, postgraduate students and public sector representatives…

Professor Gareth Rees has offered his expertise to an article this week (March 12th, p.4) about the next Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) results in November. The article leads on Education Minster Leighton Andrews’ comments that he doesn’t expect Wales to show ‘real improvement’ in the school rankings because the Welsh Government’s new education…

WISERD are supporting two ESRC PhD awards as part of 11 fully-funded studentships with the Cardiff School of Social Sciences and the Doctoral Training Centre for Wales. Both studentships for the 2012/13 academic year will be in the field of education. The first topic will examine adult community learning participation and involvement in schooling and the second…

Front page news! The report into graduate mobility that found Wales has lower retention rates with regards to the proportion of students studying and staying to find work in Wales is the lead story in the Western Mail. The online copy, published by Wales Online, can be found through this link.  

A recent project on Welsh graduate mobility by WISERD researchers has been featured on the front page of the Western Mail today (January 5th 2012). The research project – ‘Stay, leave or return? Patterns of Welsh Graduate mobility’– was undertaken in collaboration with the ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) and investigated the nature…